RBS now focusing on Natwest IT following outage

The bank has said that online banking is now fully operational and debit card transactions are processing as normal

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has confirmed that a technical fault impacting Natwest customers has now been fixed, but it is continuing to monitor its systems closely after a number of high-profile IT failures.

It was revealed that customers of Natwest, an RBS subsidiary, were having technical difficulties accessing their online bank accounts and using their debit cards.

An RBS spokeswoman confirmed to Computerworld UK that the problem has now been resolved, but did not provide any details as to its cause.

She said: "Online banking is now fully operational and debit card transactions are processing as normal.

"We continue to monitor the systems closely and will keep our customers fully informed. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

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This week's Natwest glitch follows a major outage at RBS last month, which resulted in millions of customers not being able to gain access to funds in their bank accounts after a botched upgrade that was made to batch processing software CA 7 from CA Technologies.

It was revealed that it was RBS' Edinburgh-based IT staff that were responsible for the systems failure, which contradicted earlier media reports that claimed a junior IT worker based in India had made the error.

Some customers of Ulster Bank, a subsidiary of RBS' in Ireland, were still experiencing problems over a month after the failure occurred.

The latest Natwest debacle comes as City regulator the Financial Services Authority prepares to tell UK banks to upgrade their outdated IT systems in light of RBS' failure. It is also reportedly going to be dealt a fine worth tens of millions of pounds.

Nationwide bank customers, some 704,426 accounts, have also experienced difficulties this week as the bank charged debit card transactions twice for payments made on Tuesday 24 July. However, a statement from the bank said that this was down to "human error" and customers will be reimbursed in full.

We have been hearing for years how CIOs and senior IT professionals need to bury the hatchet with line of business managers and, instead of focusing on the latest bleeding-edge technology for its own sake, seek to better understand the overall strategic objectives of their organisations.